Small Potatoes Make The Steak Look Bigger

Psycholinguists argue about whether language reflects our perception of reality or helps create them. I am in the latter camp. Take the names we give the animals we eat. The Patagonian toothfish is a prehistoric-looking creature with teeth like needles and bulging yellowish eyes that lives in deep waters off the coast of South America. It did not catch on with sophisticated foodies until an enterprising Los Angeles importer renamed it the considerably more palatable Chilean sea bass.― Hal Herzog

Sunday, March 29, 2015

This modern and classic take on sangria basically piles the foamed sangria on top of the drink. Gimmicky I suppose since texture didn't really do very much. Gimmicky like I said. And while I really prefer not to complain at this point, I've had better sangria.

warm thyme & onion bread, smoked bone marrow butter

The food started off pretty darned good. Like their light and flaky onion bread. My only gripe, I had absolutely no idea why it was bone marrow butter described on the menu. It tasted like regular butter, smoked nicely for sure, but bone marrow? Did I miss something or did they?

This was good too. Served in small enough portions for birds, but good nonetheless. What didn't materialize is the truffle honey. I'm pretty sure it was truffle oil that was whipped into the burrata. No honey there. Esqui-nada. But the play of textures and flavours were very nicely done.

roasted cauliflower, Serrano ham and cheese (Manchego)

Their roasted cauliflower appeared a lot less complicated than the beetroot, but this was seriously good stuff. A light crunch from the vegetable, smokiness from both the ham and the vegetable and saltiness from the Manchego cheese. We scraped the plate clean.

sea urchin and crab bisque, sea grapes and smoked herring roe

We were looking forward to this. But the dish was actually a little disappointing. The name on the menu should have been reduced to sea urchin and crab bisque. Why? The smoked herring roe came in such puny portions that it did nothing. And I certainly didn't see any umi budou in there. Esqui-nada. This tiny uni shell was filled with chunks of sweet crab meat though. And apparently, the uni element was blended into the crab bisque so I could taste nothing of them.

Couldn't say I was very impressed with the barbequed mackerel. Couldn't tell which was the wasabi buttermilk neither since that green smudge tasted like a coriander and pureed avocado and the white smudge didn't taste like it has wasabi. This was a Japanese influenced grilled saba dish?

wagyu beef rump, fried oyster, oyster mayonnaise, dashi jelly

This was quite nice. What wasn't described was the heat from the crisp batter on the oyster which was rather good. The little onion layer in the middle contained a sauce. We tasted yuzu and maybe heavy cream. Very delicious sauce that could work well with almost anything. Oyster mayo was very nicely done too - if you like oysters. What didn't quite shine in terms of flavour was the dashi jelly. It just didn't quite scream dashi.

Not the slightest hint of black pepper in the meringue. Which is the painted on layer in the bowl/plate in case you are wondering. One has to scrape them off with the spoon. The single element that rocked on its own was the sweetish basil sorbet. The flavours of the basil were.....invigoratingly fresh.

Manchego cheese custard, black olive, brioche crumbs, apricot jam

This was a take on crackers, cheese and fruit jam. The brioche crumbs lent texture to the custard which was nice. Liked the custard. It was more savoury than sweet as a dessert, but it worked.

Clearly, it was mixed feelings and stronger ones than from the previous visit. If anyone were to ask me if Esquina was any good, I wouldn't be able to come up with a straightforward answer.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Hmmm, I think like this place (21 Tan Quee Lan St., #01-03) some. Their very appetising liang ban cai was freshly made, deliciously spicy from the chilli and also perkily sour. And there were those boiled pork and cabbage dumplings on the other end were tasty too. What I had mixed feelings over were actually the grills. Some of the meat were good while others were really spiced up unidentifiable chunks of protein matter.

What worked for us obviously was that this was bbq without the hard work. All we had to do was order and the food arrived in pretty short order after. And with all the heat, grease and spices from the food, the only drinks that one should bother with are the hot Chinese tea (pretty nice stuff) and beer.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

This Far East Plaza location for Saveur sure was convenient. The chances of them becoming out of mind from out of sight is so much lessened for me. Which was why I didn't wait 6 years just to revisit.

Here's a look at some of the stuff that they do. The duck confit which I had mentioned previously, the foie gras stuffed chicken roulade in that creamy Parmesan sauce on basmati rice and their pan roasted foie gras. Delicious and affordably so. This time round, I didn't get the picture of their mushroom soup which was actually rather nice too.

What really had me here was the pasta with sakura ebi and chives. I can certainly understand why people talk about it and honestly, it was one of the more memorable plate of noodles I've had in some time. The texture was good and the savoury intensity was just great. I look forward to coming back for that again.

Monday, March 23, 2015

The last time was Nutella, so this time round I had a jar of kaya from Wangz which I decided to use since it wasn't all that different with the sweet/salty thing. I guess this worked too. But I did feel that this kaya from Wangz isn't very fragrant and the texture was a little too smooth. I'll try other brands the next time.

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Well, that name (41 Middle Rd, tel : +65 6336 8675) was a mouthful. But the cake was actually rather enjoyable. I had been hoping that each of those slices were freshly cut from the whole, but from the speed and frills that they had put in, it was apparently not. Still, it was probably one of the better Black Forest gateau (considering that we have a dearth of it) around with Kirsch soaked cherries, not blueberry jam. If I had to gripe, it'll be the caramel crust at the base that felt un-needfully sweet after a while.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

This new open-kitchen restaurant (1A Keong Saik Road, tel : +65 6221 3538) was brought to the world by the people from Lolla. It's kinda obvious while not being so. The vibes from the food felt like a mix between Burnt Ends, Lolla and Wolf sans the counter seats.

Was it important that I mentioned open kitchen? Well, the smell does linger. Anyway, these guys are going the "season" route for ingredients so the menu is expected to change on a daily basis for a small part.

The first to arrive unexpectedly was their wagyu (Gunma Prefecture, A4) ribeye cap. The meat was a marriage of flavours from rare melting fat and the Malliard's reaction. Yes, basically what one would reasonably expect from such meat. We loved it. Of course I would have liked more of it.

The other dish which came up pretty quickly was their lamb shoulder and oyster stew. It's my first time with this combination of surf and turf and there's nothing that doesn't work. Truth be told, I was initially wondering how does oysters work out with lamb as well. It's a lamb stew with an injection of brine from the fat oysters. That's it. Not bad as it was still tasty, but it was not mind blowing either.

Here's roasted black figs wrapped in bacon. The figs were stuffed with merguez; which I just found out is an African based spicy sausage of lamb or beef. This one's lamb. There's a tangy element to all the fat and sugars which is the sauce.

To kill the suspense of those who cannot recognize the rune like piece of organic matter, it's veal tongue. Corned veal tongue from them to be precise. My first time possibly, having so much tongue in a seating.

That's a slice of Perl Las which is a blue cheese made from the Caws Cenarth dairy in Carmarthenshire. The name means 'blue pearl'. The texture was creamy and the pungence was fairly robust without being overpowering. What made this platter of grape and cheese different was that the grapes were oven roasted. Meaning that the fruit was hot and that heat accentuates flavour and sugars. Which leads things into a different flavour game versus the regular cool citrus of grapes with cheese. We liked it.

This was lemon semolina cake with rosemary ice cream. The cake, was soaked in come citrus, which didn't quite taste like just lemons. But the citrus was vibrant, not overly sour and very very good with the hot crumbly cake and rosemary ice cream. I hope this becomes a regular item.